10 Beloved Video Games That Left A Horrible First Impression
There's a reason no one talks about Red Dead Redemption's opening hour of cow-herding...
Terrible openings never get as much flack as botched endings, because although a poor finale can completely sink an entire game (just ask Mass Effect 3), fans are more forgiving of a shaky introduction if the rest of the game provides hours upon hours of great content.
Which is a shame, because the reality is that some of the most iconic games in the medium take hours and hours of relentless perseverance before you ever get to the good stuff. RPGs in particular can be particularly bad offenders, often giving players lengthy preambles that are entirely unrepresentative of the expansive game to come.
A bad opening followed by a thoroughly excellent game is a forgivable misstep, sure, yet some of the most famous games of all time have been able to hold onto iconic status, despite leaving a terrible first impression on everyone who played them.
Although all of these games eventually came around to deliver some of the best moments the medium has ever seen, I can't quite forgive them for putting me through so much lacklustre gameplay before they got to the good stuff.
10. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Uncharted 4 is arguably the best game released for Sony's PS4 so far, yet if you've only played through the opening few missions, you're probably wondering how the title has gained such feverish acclaim.
The problem stems from pacing, and the fact that this final game is structured much more thoughtfully than its predecessors - but it's not the fact that these opening hours are slow that makes them inherently terrible.
In fact, seeing Nate and Elena living retired lives is essential for the story to work going forward, but it's such a shame that these excellent moments are mired by a whole load of wheel-spinning and exposition.
Because unfortunately, A Thief's End is lumped with the difficult task of introducing a long lost brother into a series that hasn't mentioned him once in nine years. What that means for players is a wealth of chapters in the early game that serve as nothing but exercises in exposition and retconning, simply to crowbar Nate's brother Sam into the franchise.
As a result, Uncharted 4 has what feels like three different openings; an explosive boat chase that teases events to come, a flashback that establishes Sam and Nate as brothers and a final intro that reintroduces us to a newly retired Nate and Elena in the aftermath of Uncharted 3.